This invention relates in general to the construction of wharfs for receiving coke from coke ovens and, in particular, to a new and useful wharf which has a plurality of electrically conductive plates which are subjected to a potential and which are positioned along the wharf over which the coke is piled and which provide a means for indicating the quantity of coke on the wharf due to the change in the potential.
The present invention relates particularly to a method and apparatus for determining the covering of a coke wharf with quenched coke, while using electric current. In the prior art, for installing devices of this kind, gantry-type supporting steel structures are used and electrically operated rope probes are appropriately spaced from each other, for example, by 0.5 m, and are suspended from the structures and hang down close to the wharf surface, and they are responsive to coke pieces which are present. For example, electrical switches mounted in plummet-like probe bodies which are provided at the end of the probes may be actuated. The switches are connected in circuits equipped with indicators, or capacitances of the probe bodies and they may vary in response to the presence or absence of coke pieces, which are converted into current pulses and indicated. Such pulses may also be used for controlling purposes.
The erection of gantry-type structures spanning the coke wharf complicates the access thereto. The structures themselves are exposed to the corroding action of humid fumes emanating from the quenched coke and the rope probes or probe bodies are continually under strong mechanical strain and are pushed to and fro by the hard coke pieces so that the resulting service is very rough and the device as a whole is susceptible to failures.
A design is also known, according to which the entire coke wharf is set on pressure pickups and the pressure is electrically transmitted to a measuring device. In this manner, the covering can be more or less accuraaely monitored. This construction, however, is heavy and clumsy in handling.